today's news on the week's top stories clashes across northern ireland head for a sixth week after belfast decision to fly the union flag over city hall just eighteen days a year. the global hack to a man down after a key internet freedom advocate commits suicide his family blames the u.s. criminal justice system for pushing him over the edge. the french president orders tougher security at home following the country's intervention in mali with fighting in airstrikes have left eleven civilians dead. and yes we can't. shut down guantanamo bay still rings hollow with more than one hundred sixty people held

at the notorious center without charge or trial eleven years after it opened. with a look back at the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly on r.t. at least twenty nine police officers were injured on saturday in belfast as violent clashes in northern ireland reach into a six week rest was triggered by belfast city council's decision to fly the union flag above city hall for only eighteen days a year the latest clashes broke out after about a thousand unionists marching on city hall were attacked by locals in a catholic area police were forced to use water cannons and plastic bullets to disperse the angry mob refer has been following the protests at the scene. clashes breaking out once again on the streets of belfast you can see the police they just

trying to push back the crowds a. number of police rather sadly sites like this becoming all too common now this isn't going to have been helped by the fact that many feel inflammatory political language is thought to whip up the tension here on the street. recreational rioting that some people are calling it. you can see the fate of. the police responding with the worst economy when the sun. had been right but the scale and intensity of the. much much more than just that he students the director of the east belfast mission creep is working with young protesters to try to calm the tensions some kids are doing it for fun or doing it for more sinister motives in terms of control terms of par in terms of ego some are

doing it because it's sexier than the playstation you know young girls are doing it because girls even with young children we've seen on the streets here i don't think a fully realized what their actions can result but they're just right there and somewhere stopping the law and yet there's nothing for me about it what are the protesters here asking for just one our flag back and water and pays to get off their backs age peter robinson least you're not silly not them he was the one that had to start. the day forty minutes for us to come out on the street to protest against. a nice back save maybe take all the flak. you know but when he wanted also to on the streets for his own actions. we can for he think the protesters would accept any kind of compromise when it comes to this when the flag and. the flag said. we know we're not going to get. action

because it's the majority. any unionist warns now to try to reengage politically that we're told much more will need to be done they'll be no quick fixes here i don't think there's any silver bullet i think there's so many different things need to happen economic. investment political investment community investment by and by all the stakeholders in these communities to try to resolve the wide draft of issues that are a blight here say far there's been a one hundred people arrested more than sixty police officers injured and millions of pounds spent in policing these riots and they love business revenue. they these riots have been highly localized the damage has already been far reaching. this is a new generation pulling back onto the streets of belfast it's

a far cry from the dark days of northern ireland's complex that doesn't make it any less troubling. the family of internet freedom activist aaron swartz has blamed the u.s. justice system for his death the twenty six year old co-founder of social news website reddit hanged himself on friday amid a massive cyber crime case researcher spoke to a representative of the pirate group from the berlin parliament fabia rinehart he says the charges swartz was facing were too strict but u.s. attorney's office pursued a spread of charges possibly leading to over thirty years in prison and a million dollar fine this ultimately for downloading and re distributing mit academic papers do you think the punishment was justified. no i definitely don't think this plan of disarmament is justified it is completely ridiculous people are

being charged with fifty thousand dollar fines for just are not into music from the internet or into what was putting pirates on the internet that should have been on the internet. a long time ago and actually j.-star. where the fire came from and said they wanted to put the fire on the internet anyway and aaron swartz just did a perfectly good job doing it and he actually took a lot of effort from them which would have been there for i think the system of rock in this case whenever it comes to internet freedom whenever it comes to copyright infringement then other senators other people in the house of representatives in the united states on the same side there's no differences. there they're five same side as hollywood does they're actually fighting for hollywood and making the last four of them it's sometimes it's ridiculous what they what they are thinking what would be a good law should always think what they're about the laws actually have an effect on society. carrying

a very heavy legacy that will be difficult to fill its footsteps but there are a lot of people that fight for the same goals that were tried to go into what he was fighting for and i think there's a political movement that is fighting for a free internet it's the strongest now and with get stronger and there is no risk that this very heavy loss for the internet community will bring a stop to the political movement. a rebel spokesman in mali says french aircraft bombed the targets in two central towns of the country with strikes also reported in the third one at least eleven civilians including three children have been killed in airstrikes in fighting since the french intervention was made public on friday the first french casualty in mali came on saturday when the pilot of a helicopter shot down by islamist rebels was killed the first task of troops him on it was to help the government we gain control of the key central town of qana the neighbors of the west african states are also sending troops to help battle

militants and so on and said that the military operation in mali will continue for as long as necessary well for more on this let's now talk live to political writer genovese barry landau he joins me live in paris why is mali so important to france parry i think it's also part of you know. it's colonial past it's great past. in west. asia and the french and. i think that's very much part of it also of course the economic. terms of the largest city anywhere is on the outskirts of her. to move here and it's interventions are they justified. are they justified i mean it depends who you ask in my opinion it's. it's a very tough question if the country was really ready to come apart has the french seemed to feel that perhaps it was i think the problem is that it's totally over

open and the french have given no they probably don't know exactly what their object is are what is their aim how long is this going to go on you're talking about a country just north of our morality which is twice the size of france how do you track down these rebels these different groups you know he's various how do you deal with them with a few hundred troops in a way into the country huge involvement and very long task in the end what they're going to want to do is i mean to negotiate with these people that's the only way i think it's going to come to an end well the initial implications of this involvement so far eleven civilians reportedly killed a french part also killed in the fighting since all this started what three days ago what about the french public will they be supporting fall on the list i have so far they have i think it's just across the political spectrum there's been support from his own socialist party to the far right there's only one person i've seen.

out former foreign minister who came out against it basically saying the problem is we don't know what we're getting into what exactly what are the repercussions perhaps facing the french people as a result of this some sort of retaliation. your friends as i said there are huge numbers of miley and living in paris in the paris area there are other. links pos we assume some of these rebel groups may be in paris or could come here the french are taking security precautions already. very hard to say some rebel groups operating there in mali were reportedly involved in the recent war in libya can you give us an idea of how that conflicts could actually be linked to well exactly what happened was after gadhafi fell a lot of so-called mercenaries who had been paid to fight for him and who had a lot of very near the arms and took off and came south and some of them originally

from northern mali decided it was now time to establish their claim to want to do for a long time to having their own homeland in northern mali these were the wiring. they were better then joined by radical more radical islamic groups and beach florida being tossed out and it's really the radical islamic groups that run things i don't think anyone really knows what's going on there just briefly talking very much about the french involvement that perspective this but of course that being supported now by britain and the u.s. could we perhaps see this mission become even bigger now with other countries getting involved just briefly has to because the french are there's no way the french are going to be able to handle this themselves and they're already relying on united states and britain for the just you know support for intelligence just the also the african troops that are going to be coming in or are they really

trained poorly equipped themselves they don't have the facilities they don't have the planes of the helicopters to bring in their own troops the u.s. is probably going to have most of so it's it's a very big very open ended project that couldn't be. many more countries for a very long time what about china barry because china's got some economical interests that you know we can trust that in a way get involved that's what really interests me i find that in the end china with no boots on the ground and you were in africa i mean china has no bases outside of china in the end they're the ones that really benefit from this intervention because they need they need security and that part of the world because they have huge new investments in every single country bringing miley there are huge new chinese investments you're talking about one hundred million dollar projects here mind hydroelectric projects so they're the last people in the world to want to see that really regime region dissolve into chaos. for

the intervention paradigm to political roger ungenerous live from paris quite today a thoughts on this thanks for joining us on all to watch. well coming up this hour eleven years of indefinite detention without trial guantanamo bay remains open despite a long running pledge to shut it down we hear from a former inmate who was held and allegedly tortured groundless accusations. government no longer represents the. people. but. the way or the fifty.

one of the world's most notorious detention facilities eleven grim anniversary this week with more than one hundred sixty people still being held there without charge or trial the closure of guantanamo bay is a promise barack obama has so far failed to keep well small calls to stop indefinite detention of largely lot down in the u.s. where even torture is getting acceptability is going to now explains. president obama's call to look forward not backward has resulted in attempts to sweep the past under the rug including some of his own promises i intend to close guantanamo and i will follow through on that colonel morris davis was a chief prosecutor at guantanamo and to george w. bush he later became a vocal critic of the practices there and strongly supported president obama's pledge to shut down the prison he says the perception of guantanamo in the u.s. has come a long way since two thousand and eight when he was a burning and highly controversial issue with the nation demanding action he gets

a free pass on i mean the public largely could care less the mainstream media now here in the us. you know is more interested in car dash and then they are and what happens at guantanamo. so who's going to challenge it if we're looking for the biggest threat to america right now she's right there her name is jim cardassian. america has moved on and so has its perception of torture polls by the american red cross show the majority of americans now find torture acceptable sixty percent of young people agree whereas four years ago torture was largely condemned in the us. hollywood has arguably contributed to that evolution of public opinion in the movie zero dark thirty day. or trade the information that led to the capture. and killing of bin laden was obtained through enhanced interrogation techniques or

torture and in fact that's simply not true the actual information was obtained through a report based interrogation techniques the government classified everything related to its torture practices which allows politicians pundits and filmmakers the freedom to perpetuate all kinds of myths although a slew of washington insiders including the senate intelligence committee point out how torture has proved to be ineffective but in america it's often fiction not facts that make history this is more important than reality this is the movies where americans learn their history and today the history in the making is the drone strikes this amounts to the administration executing people without due process often in absolute secrecy in foreign lands with a remote control but it will obama's drones generate as much of a backlash as one tunnel did for george w. bush and we've now got have a generation that only knows the post nine eleven era. where things like

guantanamo and the warrantless wiretapping that's all they've ever known you know for decades now and i think it has become an accepted part of life unfortunately judging by how the guantanamo controversy evolved here is what may transpire with regard to drone the urgency of the issue will subside in the u.s. because there will be no american for dying there will be no strong public movement . there may even be a movie or two out of the no logical capabilities of drones and once the controversy dies down it will become the new normal and americans will move on in washington. on what turned out to be groundless accusations he was released after the u.s. military fell to force him to confess to crimes he never committed but he says some others. if you are not

a terrorist they will live to try to make you or terrorists in i should example i must say if i should agree that i am be a member of. that i did fight with taliban together against american soldiers between the war. and i should i should sign papers that i am be a member of but where the charges first. there was no reason for just the. pakistani people they saw through some dollar to the americans they said this man he's a terrorist and very soon few months later they found out that i'm innocent and they want me. that i'm going to sign posts they forced me to sign papers that i should beg me that i'm be a member of al qaeda because because they didn't have anything against me in their hands that i knew same for you how did they force you say what were they doing to shoot to do that. they used torture techniques like waterboarding and

electroshocks they sought after this i'm going to sign and agree that i'm being a member of al qaeda and every time i refused to sign they tried another kind of torture they saw i walked one time can you tell us the worst thing one of a better word that you saw going on there. example i saw. i had used to be just nine or if you're sort childs and. i think it was the worst i saw. there was not treating better than us i didn't saw that they getting tortured but. to see children in the same camp it was better for me and. also i saw people the got killed on the torture the bigger portion of the. i mean i have seen many things during this five years many thinks this is just

a couple of those how do you feel after what you've been through in guantanamo through no fault of your own how does it make you feel as a human being. of course nobody can be happy after after all this happened. i myself i'm trying to support human rights organizations to fight against torture around the world not just guantanamo. around the world exists more than more than twenty one secret prisons where people getting tortured and guantanamo is just one of course a new round of diplomatic efforts to solve the ongoing syrian crisis has failed to reach a breakthrough even international mediators reiterated this week there could be no military solution to the conflict and moscow again voices support for a political transition adding that president assad's departure cannot be a precondition for a deal to end the war. we are united in our view that the

crisis is becoming increasingly menacing not only pursue with the region as a whole. in this situation the only ones that benefit are the radicals and extremists connected to terror groups like al qaida were convinced the solution lies in following the geneva agreements without any preconditions because preconditions will make it impossible to start a dialogue it's necessary to force all sides including the opposition that's now refusing the talks to come to the negotiating table. meanwhile on the ground the rebels seized a large airbase in the north while regime forces bombarded opposition fighters out of the suburbs of the capital damascus earlier western experts claim the government might be hiding up to fifty tons of raw iranian that's enough to make five nuclear bombs and off the recent thing is the regime could lose control of its massive stockpiles of chemical weapons is now concerned uranium may fall into the hands of

islamic iranian may fall into the hands of. cull shero thinks that the issue is being made up. now there is kind of a sequence a chain of large mists in our use that are being produced concerning chemical weapons and nuclear granular of the syrian regime there's a process of planning for that day out there as out as western powers very miserly get and i think they're buying up all these different reasons for them to step in and take control of their own tree a country it shouldn't happen i want to start is that said no they're afraid that iran might get this uranium minor injury and you know i mean five big adopting it now how they showed us and how it's i think it's another in this long list of possible reasons for good west two or western states to intervene and it seems that there's a lot of preparation for great thanks for stepping in should i start full and taking control of this situation including the u.k. when the u.k.

government decided to run for that possibility so you see that there are multiple failures engaged in that process which is kind of really shocking the fate of syria could be decided outside this leak and to. the people of beijing are being given strict stay indoors warnings on why it's too risky to go outside at all t. don't come. with a lot of the members in your old boy has travelled a thousand kilometers across international borders at the wheel of a car without raising any suspicion or on the under-age boyd seana website. thousands of russian opposition activists have marched here in moscow to protest against the law banning us citizens from adopting russian children of course when you were going to was at the ready. the protesters are demanding that the e.u. the authorities abolish the law passed me silly which bans americans from adopting russian children now this button is part of the russian lawmakers response to the

money to get back to past recently in the united states which gives the green light for sanctioning russian officials suspected there in the states of violating human rights are the reason why russian lawmakers chose two ballot marathons from adopting russian children is due to the meaning cases of abuse and sometimes even deaths of russian kids after they were adopted and brought to the united states in fact the whole issue adoption has been quite a problem between russia and the united states for several years now and officials in moscow say it's not only the cases of abuse themselves but also the lack of a proper legal reaction from american of gordie's including the lack of heavy jail sentences which could have prevented these cases from happening again so authorities say that banning americans from adopting russian kids is actually aimed at protecting them and it's fair to say that they do have quite

a large number of supporters in society in the washouts just recently why the russian girl in her blog online wrote a personal letter to president putin few signs the bill in the end asking him to change his mind to abolish the slaughter she explained it by saying that in many cases the orphans which are being adopted by americans and many foreigners but americans in this case they are disabled and they are simply not able to receive the proper medical attention here in russia and we both know all good and heard from the president's press secretary to be a sponsor who said that i was going to put in will review this walk post even though it's not an official request oh so right before the end of last year one of russia's newspapers managed to gather. around one hundred thousand signatures now protesting this law and under the decree of the president the parliament also has

to review this protest it's also needed to point out that to due to the current agreement between moscow and washington on adoption all those people who have already been able to find the children who are going to be adopted and brought to the united states they're going to be able to finalize the process so these kids who are already sort of approved to be adopted be will be able to go to the united states all the way until two thousand and fourteen. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has pledged to continue building settlements in the west bank that's just hours after the country's police effected a around two hundred palestinian activists and protesters from the site or construction the outpost made up of twenty tents was set up on friday to protest against an israeli housing project in the contentious area known as the one building plans are illegal under international law and would split palestinians from lands they claim in east jerusalem activists promise more protest camps in

other areas. egypt's former president hosni mubarak who was ousted in a popular uprising two years ago will be retried over the deaths of protesters during two thousand and eleven revolt the court's decision follows an appeal by mubarak and his former interior minister both previously received life sentences for allowing the killings at anti-government demonstrations the former leader's defense says that the court could consider his the to rating health in the retrial . well to bring it up to date for the moment i'll be back with a news team in just over half an hour with more for you the meantime we have a special report on the anti corporate occupy movement in america that's coming your way after a short break. because

of recent events guns have a game become a big issue all over the usa both sides are throwing their talking point ammunition back and forth and we hear a lot of conflicting stories well in australia they got tough on gods and crime went down but then again others say in the u.k. they got rid of all their guards and all hell broke loose i've heard stories that you are way more likely to be killed by a deer in your headlights than get taken out by a maniac with a tech nine but then again i've heard that. deaths from guns will exceed even deaths from car accidents japan is safe because it has no guns but switzerland is even safer because automatic weapons are all over the place the information is all very contradictory but ultimately it doesn't matter what facts and reports you throw at the other side the gun question is a philosophical one some people would rather at least feel like they have their fate in their own hands even if there is a chance they will shoot their own dog in the middle of the night and other people are so concerned with safety and are so full of fear for their.